Award details

Environmental responsiveness of biopolymer multilayers

Reference	BBS/E/F/00042327
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Roger Parker
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Peter Wilde
Institution	Quadram Institute Bioscience
Department	Quadram Institute Bioscience Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	108,600
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	11/06/2007
End date	24/10/2010
Duration	40 months

Abstract

The food industry needs to be able to make food structures which deliver health, well-being and enjoyment. Nutritionists are increasingly able to identify food compositions, and molecular species, which are associated with a positive health benefit. A challenge is to be able to make food structures which enable the delivery of these potential health benefits. Pharmaceutical researchers have developed a range of technologies which allow both the site-specific and controlled release of therapeutics to different regions of the human gut. Controlled and site-specific delivery requires environmentally responsive structures which can protect and encapsulate an active ingredient in certain environments, yet provide a release of the active component in others. There is the need to protect the active ingredient in a complex food environment through encapsulation and provide release behaviour in structures constructed from food components. We propose to study the assembly and properties of structures from charged natural polymers which would enable the fabrication of biomaterials for the encapsulation of active ingredients in foods and then ensure their release in the human gut. The approach that we will adopt will involve the sequential deposition of oppositely charged natural polymers to form layered structures. The control of molecular size and structure will enable the assembly of structures which have substantial variation in the way that charge is distributed within the structure. From our knowledge of the behaviour of charged polymer structures, we propose that through this we can control environmental responsiveness, to produce structures which provide controlled release in the gut. To do this in a rational way we need to understand the relationship between charge distribution and responsiveness. We will probe the assembly and consequent responsiveness of surface layers using a range of techniques including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring and surface plasmon resonance. By examining the responsiveness of the structures to changing pH, ionic strength, osmotic pressure and degradative enzymes, we can discover the relationships between responsiveness, structure and charge distribution, and enable the production of useful structures.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	Industrial Biotechnology, Structural Biology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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